Tiffany Haddish Says Beyoncé Took That Selfie With Her To Prevent Her From Getting Into A Fight

The picture of Tiffany Haddish and Beyoncé together was pretty cute. We love to see Black girls at the top of their respective fields come together and show love to one another. But during a recent interview with Vulture, Haddish revealed that the story behind the photo op was more amusing than the photo itself. In the interview Tiffany spoke about the number of ways her life has changed over the past year, celebrity run-ins, dream projects and her thoughts on mispronouncing names as she read the Oscar nominations.

I got Michael B. Jordan’s phone number, what are you talkin’ about? [Laughs.] He’s super cool and down to earth and really nice. When I was on SNL, I was trying to get him to be a guest on there with me, but they didn’t contact him soon enough.

Celebrity Groupon trips

So when did Groupon get in touch? I hope they sent you flowers after your Jimmy Kimmel appearance …
No, I didn’t hear from them after Jimmy Kimmel! A few months went by before I heard from them, although I think my team had been talking to them. They didn’t want to tell me anything and get my hopes up. I mean, I have been actively promoting Groupon for years — they say I’m in the top one percent of Groupon users — so when they finally told me, “Yo, Groupon wants you to be a spokesperson,” I was doing the nae nae for, like, five minutes. Then they told me Groupon wanted me to be in a commercial, so I started writing out these ideas — I even wrote out a treatment for a show where I take celebrities on Groupon excursions. When I finally got to talk to the Groupon people, they were like, “We already have an idea, but thank you, Tiffany! We’ll hold onto that for later.”

Vulture: Wait, I would totally watch you take celebrities on Groupon excursions.

Right? That would be so much fun. We could go to local restaurants, or maybe even trips to Ireland or England. They have trips to Africa, on safaris. There’s so much cool stuff on there.

And which celebrities would you take on those trips?

Well, you know I’m gonna take a man first. [Laughs.] Let’s turn this Groupon excursion into a romance! How long can this list be?

However long it needs to be, Tiffany! Shoot for the moon.

Well, let’s see. I would take Michael B. Jordan, I would take Trevor Noah. I would take Will Ferrell because he would be so much fun to hang out with, and he can bring his wife and kids because the Groupons are so cheap. Who else would I take? Definitely I would take Kevin Hart somewhere, with his wife so I could hear her talking crazy to him. And Dave Chappelle and his wife, because I already get along with her. Wait, now it’s turning into a couples thing, so I guess I have to marry Trevor Noah or Michael B. Jordan. Maybe I can marry both of them! I’ll go to Africa and have two husbands.

Okay, so what had happened was, something had went down with somebody at the party, right? I’m not at liberty to say what had went down at the party, but Beyoncé was just telling me to have a good time, and I was like, “No, I’m gonna end up fighting this bitch!” She was like, “No, have fun, Tiffany,” and I said, “I’m only going to have fun if you take a selfie with me.”

She said, “Okay,” and then she buried her face in my wig. We took the picture and I was like, “Is my wig slipping?” And she was like, “Mmm-hmm.” But she knew who I was! She came up to me and was like, “I think you are so funny, Tiffany Haddish.” I was like, “What? You know me?!” She said, “I’m Beyoncé.” “I KNOW!”

Man, I’ve been trying to get Barbra Streisand in something! I was like, “We should remake Funny Girl.” And she was like, “Who am I going to be, your mother?” I’m like, “Yes! I’m a foster kid, you could be my mom!” I would love to work with her, it would be a great honor. You know, someone sent me this clip of Mark Wahlberg — I was about to call him Marky Mark, my bad — and he was talking to Chelsea Handler and she asked him who he wanted to work with. And he said, “Tiffany Haddish!” I was like, “Whaaaaaaaaat? He knows who I am?” I was floored. I wonder if he’s willing to rap and dance and sing with me on something.

You could be the new Funky Bunch.

I would love to be in the Funky Bunch!

Mispronouncing names at the Oscars

Vulture: How does all that feel? Your motto has always been “she ready,” but now that it’s really happening and everybody is waking up to you, are things how you expected them to be, or do you have to take a moment sometimes to process it all?

All of the above. Some days, I’m like, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I worked for, and I manifested it ten years ago. I didn’t know how I was going to get here, but I got here.” And sometimes, it’s like when they asked me to read the Oscar nominations. I couldn’t even go to sleep afterwards! Mind you, I had just flown in from Africa, I spent all day on another project, and they came and picked me up from my house at midnight. I tried to learn all these names, but I don’t speak foreign languages like that — I speak Japanese and some Spanish, but these names were like Italian and they had so many vowels in ’em! And I was so sleepy because I usually go to bed by 2 and now it’s 5 a.m.

Vulture: How did you feel afterwards? I saw one of the nominated writers tweet that he was honored to have his name mispronounced by you, and you replied that it was such a surreal experience that you felt like you were in a Key & Peele sketch.

When I finally got home, I had to hug myself a little bit and say, “You know what, Tiffany? I don’t care if you did make mistakes. I’m so proud of you.” I never, ever thought I would be able to do something awesome like that. That little foster kid, up there? I saw so many people say, “Tiffany should have got nominated,” and I’m like, “You guys don’t even understand. I got to go to the party! Who cares about a damn trophy?” I’m just so grateful, and my heart is so full. That little foster girl … Sorry, I keep thinking of myself as a child.